Hermione the elder, 1999

Hermione reviewed her sheaf of parchment once more, murmuring key points out loud to herself. She would not be able to take the pages with her, so she had to remember all of the important parts to tell Severus. What's more...she had to remember the important pieces that she couldn't tell Severus. Like the bit about Horcruxes—that was strictly off-limits.

Checking her sheet of time-travel dates, Hermione set the Time-Turner to the appropriate number of spins. As she was doing so, a voice that had come to plague her sounded behind her.

"I thought you had abandoned this," Gawain said, his tone hopeful.

"Never," Hermione responded firmly. She heard Gawain sigh but she did not spare him a glance as she climbed onto the table. True, it had been two weeks since she'd last visited the Time Room, but that was only because she had been researching and writing her notes. There was information that Severus needed, but Hermione knew there was a fine line between helping him and outright meddling with his timeline.

Gawain was lecturing her now, but Hermione ignored him. She knew the rules, didn't she? She'd had a Time-Turner in her third year, hadn't she? And she had proved herself trustworthy then, so she did not understand why this man was being so vexing now.

"Yes, yes, discretion and all that, I've got it." Hermione waved a hand dismissively. "Believe me, I have no desire to be seen any more than my younger self has a desire to get us into trouble, so your concern is appreciated but entirely unneces-"

"Your younger self? Hermione, did she see you again?"

Hermione rather thought that Gawain's eyeballs were about to pop from their sockets. She hadn't meant to mention that little detail to him, but it seemed that the Kneazle was out of the bag now.

"She might have, yes," Hermione responded carefully. She braced herself for the explosion that she knew was coming.

"BOOT!" Gawain barked, startling Hermione. The Ravenclaw from Hermione's year hurried over, looking at her nervously. "Please draft an official memo to Minister Shacklebolt. I want it known that Miss Granger here has been willfully ignoring the rules of the Unspeakable department during her trips back in time." He paused to give her a menacing glower. "Miss Granger and I will both sign it so it is on record that neither I nor anyone else in this department is responsible should something unintended happen to her."

Terry, a first-year apprentice in the Department of Mysteries, answered with a quiet 'yes, sir' and then bustled off, shooting an apologetic glance over his shoulder at Hermione.

"Fine," she said churlishly. "I'll sign it when I return." She was unaccustomed to being treated this way. Ever since the war had ended, her heroine status had afforded her a great deal of respect—and not a little bit of "looking the other way". When you'd helped defeat the Darkest wizard of all time, relatively small things, such as destroying the Wizarding bank, were generally glossed over.

"I am not being over-zealous, Hermione," Gawain said. "Seeing yourself twice in a row? That is a worrisome coincidence. Do you think there is any chance that your presence is drawing her?"

Hermione considered his question with the seriousness it deserved. Had she been exerting some kind of pull on her younger self? "I think—I think it's more that—I must have known to go back to these certain times because—because I knew I'd already been there, you know?" She tilted her head at him, wondering what he thought.

Gawain shook his head. "No, I don't know," he answered her bluntly. "That makes no sense."

"Yes, it does! I knew which times to go back to Severus, because years and years ago I'd already been there with him. It's just like Harry's Patronus! Oh, I finally understand what he was saying!" Grinning broadly, Hermione looked to Gawain for confirmation.

When he simply threw his arms in the air in surrender and muttered something about "lingering spell damage", Hermione shrugged and lay down. She had more important things to do.

A/N: Poor Gawain. His job security seems to be fading fast, hm? Thanks to duj for suggesting a reason why Hermione might keep bumping into, well, Hermione! If Hermione's explanation to Gawain doesn't make sense, that's because time-travel hurts my brain. Nevertheless, I will persevere in bringing you the rest of this story as quickly as I can write it. Beta still welcomed and encouraged!